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Landscape bark and hardwood chips are often used around flowerbeds, trees and shrubs as a mulch material. They add a decorative touch to your landscape, while also suppressing weeds, retaining soil moisture, moderating soil temperature and preventing compaction. However, the two are different products that with advantages and disadvantages that may make one better than the other, depending on your landscape and needs.

Landscape Bark

Landscape bark is usually made from the bark of softwood trees such as pine, spruce, fir and redwood, and is used by home gardeners as a decorative mulch material. Producers of landscape bark mechanically remove the bark from the trees, and from there it is shredded or graded for use as a landscape material. It is available in a range of sizes and is usually processed into chunks, granules or shredded material. Landscape bark chunks tend to last longer than shredded or granule products.

Hardwood Chips

Hardwood chips consist of chipped wood from a variety of hardwood species, including oak and maple. They're often available from garden centers, but you may also buy hardwood chips from landscaping or utility companies that clear or prune trees. Hardwood chips are not as decorative as landscape bark, which tend to retain their color for several seasons, because they tend to fade quickly, taking on a gray or weathered look.

Advantages

Bark mulches have excellent resistance to compaction, so they are less likely to blow away, and they ensure good water penetration to the soil. They’re also attractive in the landscape, adding color and texture. Landscape bark retains its rich color and decomposes more rapidly than hardwood chips. This type of wood mulch only needs to be renewed every two to three years, unless it has washed away. Wood chips are ideal for moisture retention and temperature control as well, and they are not easily blown or washed away. They don’t compact as other materials will do and are ideal for suppressing weeds.

Disadvantages

When used on slopes, landscape bark tends to wash away easily. Some types of landscape bark may be toxic if used around young plants, particularly if it is fresh or if it has been improperly stored. Hardwood chips have a high carbon to nitrogen ratio, which means that during the decomposition process, the chips may temporarily reduce the nitrogen available to plants. This can be balanced by adding nitrogen fertilizer to plants mulched with hardwood chips. Hardwood chips are often renewed by gardeners each year, due to their rapid weathering and faded appearance, but this can suffocate the roots and cause cankers to form around the base of trees and shrubs. While termites can be a problem in any type of wood, termites live underground and are present whether you use wood mulches or not. However, hardwood chips should not be placed against any structure and applied several inches away from your home’s foundation to prevent the risk of termite infestations.

About the Author

Renee Miller began writing professionally in 2008, contributing to websites and the "Community Press" newspaper. She is co-founder of On Fiction Writing, a website for writers. Miller holds a diploma in social services from Clarke College in Belleville, Ontario.